A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

The Office for Metropolitan Architecture ( OMA ) is a leading international partnership practicing contemporary architecture, urbanism and cultural analysis. And my favorite sentence in their job post at Archinect (my emphasis): Candidates must be highly creative, innovative and must feel confident in a complex, stressful and chaotic context . At least they're honest.

One of the clearest signs of a thriving economy, progress, and all that comes with that is cranes. After the Berlin Wall fell and buildings started to fill the gaps in the bombed-out city, a skyline of cranes was the most prominent image for the place. Image from here Now, that distinction of "crane capital" would probably go to Dubai or China . Regarding the latter, I heard today that more than half of all cranes in the world currently reside on construction sites in China, an amazing fact (if true) though not necessarily surprising. There seems to be some strange appeal for cranes, evidenced by the web page Crane Porn and an article in today's Chicago Tribune that focuses on a crane operator for Trump Tower. The graphic below is a handy guide to that tower crane (click it for the larger view with annotations). Crane Links: :: Crane Porn :: Crane Porn Flickr Pool :: Wikipedia page :: FreeFoto.com

According to the Chicago Tribune , Ned Cramer, the first full-time curator at the Chicago Architecture Foundation , is leaving the non-profit group known for its tours and other programs to become editor of a planned architecture magazine in Washington, the foundation says. In his nearly four-year tenure as curator, Cramer has brought many interesting exhibitions to the CAF, including the Big & Green show on sustainable architecture and the current one on public space. (Thanks to Sally for the head's up!) On a side note, it's annoying to see Blair Kamin ending his all-too-brief report linked above with the sentence, "He also was a vocal supporter of the Soldier Field renovation." Back in 2004, Kamin anticipated Soldier Field's loss of landmark status, a position he's been pushing for quite a while. As Lynn Becker points out , "Kamin...made the new Soldier Field his own Baby Richard, filling up column after column of derisive critiques even after all...

Lisa Chamberlain at Polis, teaming up with Curbed, has started a contest to " Nominate the Best Jane Jacobs Block in NYC ". She explains that "the idea is to celebrate the 'street ballet' of your favorite block...because it exhibits the characteristics that Jane Jacobs enumerated as essential ingredients to a quality urban life," ingredients she enumerates in her post. I would probably submit what's above, but I don't meet the guidelines (I only have the one photo). Regardless, I'll explain what I like about it and how it meets the essential ingredients. The block is at the intersection of MacDougal and King Streets in Soho; the photo is taken from 12 Chairs, a great little cafe that expanded in the last couple years. As you can maybe see by the photo, MacDougal is a thru-street while King Street ends in a T-intersection at MacDougal, a very rare situation in Manhattan. This condition is part of what makes this block of MacDougal (from Houston o...

Jane Jacobs, the author of the legendary and immensely influential book The Death and Life of Great American Cities (among numerous other titles ) died today in Toronto at the age of 89. To learn more about Jacobs, check out Michael Blowhard's recent brief history and an interview with James Howard Kunstler from 2001.

The Beatles: The Biography by Bob Spitz. ( Amazon ) It's apparent from this book's subtitle that the author is trying to write THE definitive biography of The Beatles, far from an easy task. It is perhaps this overreaching goal that has garnered criticism that the music gets lost amongst everything else, the relationships, the drugs, the bickering, etc. While this is the case at certain times, Spitz is most successful at making the story The Beatles real, breaking down the myths by presenting an in-depth, highly-researched chronological biography of the band. From background on each member's families and their upbringings to the coming together of the band as a single unit, the first section of t...

M House in Nagoya, Japan by architecture w The following text and images are courtesy architecture w for their M House in Nagoya, Japan. The M house sits at the end of a typical Japanese street in the hills around Nagoya. As with many Japanese homes, the house actually is a residence for two families. A young family with one child lives in the upper two floors while the wife's parents live in the lower level. Due to the constricting nature of the site, the upper level cantilevers out over a carport and creates an interesting entrance sequence. The stairs, accented in yellow and day lit from above force views as you move thru the house. Once you arrive at the upper level the view to the mountains beyond is presented in what is...

Below is 5NOVE/Alessandro Console's winning entry in Arquine's international competition for a Site Museum in Tulum, Mexico. Many thanks to Alessandro for providing the text and images. Making Radura The project relates itself with two different contexts: the archaeological site of Tulum and the forest. Click image for larger view Our strategy of intervention tends to reassume the tension of this twofold relation in a single design gesture. In this spirit, the museum assumes a hypogenous character establishing with its roof a platform that defines a glade in the surrounding space of the woodland. The museum develops itself below the ground level, under the glade. It is a monolithic element, enveloped by stone panels, on which is elaborated operations of addition and subtraction in order to enlighten the space of the museum. Click image for larger view The project defines then two parallels spaces: the underground rooms that are related to the imagery of the ancient Mexican ar...

Some articles that caught my attention today. :: Security Concerns at Ground Zero No, not Freedom Tower again; this time it's the Memorial. It sounds like a Catch-22: the design "encourages and engenders public interaction," which in turn, "constitute[s] vulnerabilities from a security perspective..." Can a public space ever be completely safe from terrorism? And still be truly public? (via Archinect ) :: Strangers on a Train The Wall Street Journal covers the "Dan Ryan Dig" from the perspective of whiny drivers who now are taking commuter trains and public transportation. (via Gapers Block ) :: Americans commute longer than ever According to the U.S. Census Bureau, "2.8 million people have so-called extreme commutes, topping 90 minutes." You don't say. (also via Archinect ) :: Top 10 Green Projects of 2006 Didn't think I could end on a car story, did ya? Sarah at Inhabitat covers the AIA/COTE's top ten, which includes the Solar U...

Looks like it's getting harder to find cutting-edge architects under 40. (found over at dezain )

Cylinders is an architectural installation by Indio, California-based The Art Office . They are "members of a 27-piece tight-knit family...activated through natural and artificial light." "Their recorded information disperses as one navigates around and amongst the pieces." "Through their particular geometrical and structural parameters, each piece acquires its own character and sensibility." "They are meant to be viewed from above, below, and from eye to eye." "They are here to inspire, to share, and to converse with." To me these repetitious, permeable, illuminated objects hold an immediate appeal. Their process and construction create not only an exterior form but also an interior space. With this in mind, it's clear that the The Art Office wants to take this design to the next level: inhabitable spaces . More information and images at The Art Office's blog .

Some local Architecture for Humanity events this week to pass along: After Katrina: Rebuilding and Re-envisioning the Gulf Coast Hosted by: Chicago Foundation for Architecture April 20, 2006 @ 6PM The John Buck Company Lecture Hall Gallery, 224 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL. PANELISTS Reed Kroloff , Dean, School of Architecture, Tulane University John Norquist , President and CEO, Congress for the New Urbanism Kate Stohr , co-founder, Architecture for Humanity Thomas Murphy , Urban Land Institute Moderated by Ned Cramer, Curator, Chicago Architecture Foundation For more information, visit the CAF . re:FAB Hosted by Civic Blueprint April 21 @ 7:30 pm Salvage One - 1840 W. Hubbard, Chicago, IL Join Chicago's design community at a benefit hosted by Civic Blueprint to benefit Architecture for Humanity. Live performances by Rebirth Brass Band of New Orleans. Spirits and hors d'oeuvres. Silent Auction. Architecture for Humanity-Chicago competition winners will be on display. Tickets ...

I've always seemed to have a sweet spot for the underdog, the little guy. Even in middle school, when faced with the choice of which Canadian province to write a report about, I chose Prince Edward Island , the smallest province in both size and population. Perhaps it's this innate appreciation or curiosity of the small and overlooked that's spurred my interest in Tikopia, a tiny island in the South Pacific that's home to about 1,200 people. The Solomon Islands is a nation made up of close to 1,000 islands. Part of the Solomon Islands are the Santa Cruz Islands. Tikopia lies southeast of these islands, approximately 85 miles from its nearest neighbor Anuta and 140 miles from Vanuatu, the nearest large neighbor (100 sq. miles in area). Tikopia's area is approximately 1.8 square miles (though some places indicate it as high as 6 square miles), which means that with 1,200 people it supports a population density of 800 people per square mile. Unbelievably,...

Chicago Townhouse in Chicago, Illinois by Alexander Gorlin Architects The following text and images are courtesy Alexander Gorlin Architects for their townhouse on the northwest side of Chicago. Photographs are copyright Michael Moran . Located in a residential neighborhood of single family homes in Chicago, on a lot of 125’ x 25’, this 2,800 sq. ft. townhouse is limited in width by the narrow lot, and also the zoning code that limits the height to 25’ to the bottom of the roof joists. These restrictions offered the opportunity to lower the entrance to four feet below grade in order to maximize the height of this three-story residence. The entrance is located in the center of the plan in order to limit circulation to the area of li...

Heading to Northbrook for some Easter brunch n' dinner, I finally took some photos of a particular block that I recently noticed as a composed whole. The most well known composed street in the area is Chicago's Alta Vista Terrace , planned and built in the early 1900s, where " every townhouse on one side is duplicated with only minor variations at the diagonally opposite end of the block. " The Northbrook block comprises only one side and uses an A-A-B rhythm across it, where the A houses face the street (left in image below) and the B houses face the side (right one below). Since there's an even number of houses, the only variation in the rhythm is a B-A-B at one end; otherwise the only variations are the exterior cladding and articulation of the Colonial style houses and the driveways. Click image for the whole block view I don't know the specific history of this block (when, how, why), but it offers an interesting example for suburban developments. Toda...

Some in-progress construction photos of BMW Welt , a "center for brand experience and vehicle delivery" in Munich, Germany, by Coop Himmelb(l)au , from their site.

Back in January, Canadian theme-park designers Forrec unveiled their plans for Navy Pier's future, which included a floating hotel, an indoor water park, and a monorail stretching the length of the pier, all rendered in old-timey postcard views. In reaction to that plan, RTKL asked young designers from its nine offices around the world to develop conceptual designs for an informal, in-house competition. These designs were unveiled on April 7 and covered in a Tribune article yesterday by Blair Kamin. Here's three of the four awarded designs, obviously scanned from the newspaper: RTKL Baltimore - click image for expanded view RTKL Los Angeles - click image for expanded view RTKL London - click image for expanded view I would agree with Kamin that the designs are highly impractical, but that's not necessarily important here. Competitions like this -- besides raising the image of RTKL -- help to generate a buzz and a discontent about the proposed plans for Navy Pier. This ...